Surgical drainage appliance



Apri] 9, 1963 J. M. JONES, JR 3,084,690

' SURGICAL DRAINAGE APPLIANCE Filed June 29, 1959 mvENToR JAMES M. JONES, JR.

United tates 3,084,650 SURGICAL DRAINAGE PPLIANCE James M. l'ones, Sir., 37 Ayrshire Road, Worcester, Mass. Filed .lune 29, 1959, Ser. No. 823,563 11 Claims. (Cl. 12S- 275) This invention relates to surgical drainage appliances usable for instance to connect a catheter to a liquid collecting receptacle.

Following certain types of surgical operations it is usual hospital practice to insert a catheter into the patients incision and connect it to some form of liquid collector by a drainage tube. Such appliances now in use do not provide -a satisfactory connection between the tube and receptacle and as a result the patient when moving in the bed is likely to disconnect the tube from the receptacle. The drippings on the -lioor must then be wiped up by the attending nurse and if lthis is delayed Very long the air in the room becomes foul.

When the patient returns from the operating room the nurse -must connect the drainage tube to the receptacle, but with devices now available this cannot be done quickly, or with assurance that the connection will be permanent.

It is an important object of the present invention to provide a surgical drainage appliance including a somewhat elastic cap to tit over the neck of a receptacle, such as a bottle, Iand a member closely fitting part at least of the cap and held to the latter by a 'tubular connector for the drainage tube. Both the cap and member have conical parts which nest to hold the connector in correct position, the member serving 'to align the connector and its tube with respect to the bottle.

The aligning member also can receive the downward force exerted by the nurses fingers when pushing the cap over the neck of the bottle without danger of disturbing the alignment of .the connector relative to the cap.

When the exudate from the patients incision has an offensive odor it is desirable to use a deodorant. It is another object of the invention to make the aligning member of such form that an absorbent pad or ring can be applied to it for the purpose of receiving drops of a deodorizing agent.

In the accompanying dra-wing which sets forth a convenient embodiment of the invention,

FIG. l shows the several par-ts of the invention in section and exploded to vsuggest the order of assembly,

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the invention after assembly of the .several parts,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical section on line FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 is a horizontal -section on line 4-4, FIG. 3, and

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 `similar to the lower end of FIG. 2 show three different types of absorbent material for a deodorizing reagent.

Referring more particularly to FIGS. l and 3, the catheter 1, which may be of the well known Foley types, has a lower end 2 which is elastic and can be readily stretched over an attaching member 3 and held thereon in any approved manner, as by an elastic or other type of clamping ring 4. Secured to the lower end of member 3 in a manner to set up an operative connection with the catheter as shown in FIG. l is a drainage tube 5 which may be made of suitable preferably transparent material, such as polystyrene, having Ia bore 6 t-o receive the exudate from the catheter. Below tube 5 is an aligning member 7 having a ilat t-op surface 8, a circular ange 9, a depending conical body 10, and a vertical bore 11, of about the same diameter as bore 6, extending vertically and axially through body 10. As shown in FIG. 4 the flange 9 has extending therethrough several arcuate slots Patented Apr. 9, 1963 12 preferably concentric with the axis of the conical body 10. The aligning member 7 is preferably made of a plastic material, such as polystyrene.

Below member 7 is a cap 15 having a top '16 in the center of which is a downwardly extending conical seat 17 into which the conical body 10 can fit. The top 116 has vent holes 18 and depending from its perimeter is a shell 19 having upper and lower internal circular ribs Ztl and 21, respectively. A circular ange Z2 extends horizontally and outwardly from the bottom of the shell. The bottom of seat 17 has a hole 23 therethrough of about the same diameter as that of bores 6 and l11.

The tubular connector Z5 has a bore 26 therethrough in a vertical tube 27 of a diameter to lit snugly into bores 6 and 11 after passing through hole 231. The bottom of connector 25 has therearound a stop shoulder 2S larger than the hole 23 and shaped as shown in FIG. 3 with a groove 24 to receive the tapered bottom of seat 17. The upper part of ltube 27 is preferably tapered slightly.

When assembling the parts thus far described the tubular connector 25 will be inserted upwardly through hole 213 until the stop shoulder 28 engages the bottom of conical seat 17. The aligning member 7 is then tted down around the connector 25 until the conical body 10 is in firm engagement with the seat 17. At this stage 0f the assembly connector 2'5 will project above surface 8 and the lower end of 'the drainage tube 5 will be fitted d-own snugly around the upper end of connector 25. The parts 5, 7, 15 and 25 are now held together tightly due to the close tit of the tubular connector 2.5 with parts 5 and 7 and the engagement of stop shoulder 28 with part 15. The tubular connector is preferably made of a plastic material, such as polystyrene, which is found in practice to establish a rm holding relation with the polystyrene aligning member 7. The cap is preferably made of a somewhat elastic material sof-ter and more yieldable than polystyrene, such as polyethylene.

The receptacle for the drippings from the patient is shown here as a glass bottle 30 having a neck 31 provided with upper and lower circular rib-s or beads 3'2 and 33, respectively. The external diameter of rib 32 is somewhat larger than the internal diameter of rib 20` on the cap 15, and similarly 'the diameter of lower rib 33 is slightly larger than that of rib 21. The bottle 30 will have a sutliciently large base to rest in stable position under the patients bed.

When the appliance is t-o be attached to the bottle the parts will be assembled as described and as shown in FIG. 3 and the nurse will then lgrasp the drainage tube just above the aligning member 7 and with the thumb and forenger push down on the member to effect a slight stretching or expansion of the cylindrical shell 19 until the ribs on the inside of 4the shell slip t ver their corresponding ribs on the neck of the bottle, after which the member 7 will snap back to normal position with ribs 32 and 33, respectively. While two pairs of coacting ribs, as 20e-32 and 21--33y have been shown it will be suicien't if only one pair is used, provided the pair establishes tight holding relation between the cap and the bottle.

When the use of a deodorant is indicated by the nature of the operation the appliance may be provided with an absorbent material, such as soft felt, held in position for convenient moistening with the deodorant. Thus, as shown in FIG. 5 a ring or washer 35 of felt is cemented to the top surface S of the aligning member. Instead of cementing, a hole 36 in a ring 37 may lit closely around the tubular connector 25 Vand be held in place by the bottom of the drainage tube, as shown in FIG. 6. In the latter case the absorbent ring 37 will be put in place before tube 5t is litted to the connector 25. The arcuate slots 12 permit yapor of the deodorant to descend into the space 38 between parts 7 and 15 to counteract the odors as soon as they arise from the holes 18. As shown in FIG. 7 a felt ring 39 surrounds the conical body 10 and its loosely on top 16 of cap 15 without blocking escape of air upwardly through holes 18. The absorbent rings are thus seen `to be held in one way or another to the aligning member 7.

Two plastic materials have been mentioned, but the parts 5, 7, 15 and 25 are not necessarily made of these plastics as set forth hereinbefore. All of these parts can be made of one or the other of these plastics mentioned, or they can be made of any suitable material as, for instance, a polyamide such as nylon, or a suitable vinyl plastic. The cap should be made of a somewhat elastic material and the tube should be flexible, but the other two parts 7 and 2.5 can be, and preferably are, made of stier material. The materials should be inactive chemically, at least they should not be able to contaminate the exudate from the patient because it very likely will be subjected to laboratory tests.

My copending application Ser. No. 717,254, tiled February 24, 1958, and now abandoned, shows surgical drainage appliance to some extent similar to the appliance described hereinbefore. In that application the part looking somewhat like the aligning member herein is made of an absorbent material, as felt, and does not have the rigidity to hold the parts together firmly as does the member 7 herein. Also, -n that application the part corresponding to connector 25 herein is secured to the drainage tube and must be forced down through the conical seat, whereas the part `25 in the present instance is separately formed and is inserted upwardly as already described `to have close fitting relation with parts 5 and 7, and the stop shoulder 28, together with the fit mentioned, organizes the several parts in a tight, strong unit. The bottle when containing 1000 cc. of fluid drippings from the patient can be safely lifted by means of the drainage tube 5 without danger of the unit coming apart.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the invention provides a strong -durable connection between the catheter and the receptacle including a slightly elastic and expandable cap to t over the ribs on the neck of the receptacle and a rigid member by which downward force can be exerted to cause the cap to snap in place. The drainage tube and connector are held together frictionally due to a close fit, and the shoulder limits upward motion of the connector and member, fitted closely to it, with respect t-o the cap. The parts 7, 1S, and 25 may be considered collectively to be a unit 40 for attachment to the bottle and to the drainage tube.

What I claim is:

1. In a surgical drainage appliance, a catheter, a receptacle having a neck, an external rib encircling the neck, a cap having a shell fitted over the neck and formed with an internal rib under the rib on said neck, a top for the cap integral therewith and formed with permanently open vent holes and having a downwardly extending seat, a rigid aligning member fitting into said seat and having a vertical bore therethrough, a connector extending through and frictionally held in said bore having a shoulder on the lower end thereof engaging the part of the cap in which said `seat is formed to prevent upward movement of the connector relative to the cap, said connector having a bore therethrough communicating with the interior of the receptacle and extending above said aligning member, and a drainage tube the lower end of which fits around and is frictionally held to the part of the connector above the member, said drainage tube having a lbore communicating with the bore of said connector, and the upper end of the drainage tube having an operative connection with the catheter by which the exudate from the latter can pass into the bore of the drainage tube.

2. The surgical drainage appliance set forth in claim 1 wherein the seat is of downwardly tapering conical form and the member has a conical part fitting into` said seat and held therein by said connector.

3. The surgical drainage appliance set forth in claim l wherein the connector and drainage tube are made of polystyrene.

4. The surgical drainage appliance set forth in claim 3 wherein the aligning member is made of polystyrene.

5. The surgical drainage appliance set forth in claim 1 wherein the cap is slightly elastic to permit the shell to expand to enable the rib on the shell to slip down around `and under the rib on said neck in response `to` downward force exerted on said member.

6. The surgical drainage appliance set forth in claim l wherein the cap is made of polyethylene and the member, connector, and drainage tube are made of polystyrene.

7. In a surgical drainage appliance to connect a drainage tube and a receptaclehaving a neck, a slightly elastic cap to tit over and be held to said neck, an aligning member made of rigid material seated on the cap and having a vertical bore therethrough, a tubular connector frictionally held in said bore and having a shoulder on the lower end thereof to limit upward movement of the connector relative to the cap and extending above the member for attachment to the drainage tube, and a body of absorbent holding material held -in position with respect to said aligning member.

8. The surgical drainage appliance set forth in claim 7 wherein the absorbent material is secured to the top of said member.

9. The surgical drainage appliance set forth in claim 7 wherein said absorbent material has a part thereof held between said member and said drainage tube.

10. The surgical drainage appliance set forth in claim 7 wherein the member has a part thereof spaced above the top of the cap and the absorbent material is confined between said part and said top of the cap.

11. For use with a surgical drainage appliance ineluding a drainage tube and a receptacle having a neck, a unit including a sli-ghtly elastic cap to fit over and be held. to the neck, and an aligning member made of rigid material seated on the cap and having a vertical bore therethrough, and a tubular connector frictionally held in said bore and having a shoulder on the lower end thereof engaging the cap to limit upward movement of the connector relative to the cap and extending above the member for attachment to the drainage tube, said elastic cap having a conical part and the member having a conical part which extends into and tits the conical part of the cap.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 877,309 Emerson Jan. 21, 1908 1,304,126 Venable May 20, 1919 2,186,987 Nesset Jan. 16, 1940 2,208,667 Devine July 23, 1940 2,345,044. Hall Mar. 28, 1944 2,555,086 Guinn May 29, 1951 2,667,873 Hein Feb. 2, 1954 2,757,669 Gewecke et al Aug. 7, 1956 2,763,266 Evans Sept. 18, 1956 2,790,582 Halpern Apr. 30, 1957 

1. IN A SURGICAL DRAINAGE APPLIANCE, A CATHETER, A RECEPTACLE HAVING A NECK, AN EXTERNAL RIB ENCIRCLING THE NECK, A CAP HAVING A SHELL FITTED OVER THE NECK AND FORMED WITH AN INTERNAL RIB UNDER THE RIB ON SAID NECK, A TOP FOR THE CAP INTEGRAL THEREWITH AND FORMED WITH PERMANENTLY OPEN VENT HOLES AND HAVING A DOWNWARDLY EXTENDING SEAT, A RIGID ALIGNING MEMBER FITTING INTO SAID SEAT AND HAVING A VERTICAL BORE THERETHROUGH, A CONNECTOR EXTENDING THROUGH AND FRICTIONALLY HELD IN SAID BORE HAVING A SHOULDER ON THE LOWER END THEREOF ENGAGING THE PART OF THE CAP IN WHICH SAID SEAT IS FORMED TO PREVENT UPWARD MOVEMENT 